greenhouse gases

Activists Win Landmark Ruling Over United Kingdom Oil Well Plan

June 20, 2024 Michael Holden, Reuters. Resist! greenhouse gases, Legal System, Oil and Gas, United Kingdom (UK), Victory

Planning authorities should have considered the impact of climate-warming emissions in approving an oil well near Gatwick Airport, the UK's highest court says, a ruling activists say could profoundly affect new fossil fuel projects in Britain. Environmental campaigners had argued that planning permission to retain and expand the oil well site near London's Gatwick was flawed because it had not considered the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from the use of the oil. Supreme Court judges agreed by a narrow three to two majority, and quashed the planning approval which they said was unlawful.

Fertiliser Giant Yara Must Tackle Massive Emissions, Shareholders Say

May 25, 2024 Clare Carlile, DeSmog. Resist! carbon footprint, climate crisis, emissions, Fertilizers, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases, Shareholder activism

Investors are calling for Yara, Europe’s largest fertiliser manufacturer, to make deep cuts to polluting emissions of greenhouse gases. Five shareholders in the company have filed a vote calling for Yara to strengthen its climate targets at its AGM later this month (28 May). If successful, the motion would see the corporation forced to set climate targets in line with a 1.5C warmed world – the vital internationally agreed goal for limiting temperature rise. The Norwegian chemical giant is the largest natural gas user in the EU. At almost 63 tonnes a year, its carbon footprint is equivalent to the annual emissions of over 16 coal-fired power plants – according to sustainable finance organisation ShareAction, the group behind the investor call.

Globalised Capitalism’s Eating Habits Responsible For One Third Of World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

May 7, 2024 HG, The Canary. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases, Report

According to a new report from the World Bank, changing how we farm could cut global emissions by almost one third. Greenhouse gas emissions could be drastically reduced by simply altering how food is produced around the world. The agrifood industry – which combines agriculture and food – takes into account the whole production process. It involves the whole journey, from food to plate including manufacture and retail. It is responsible for nearly a third of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is one sixth more than the whole world’s heat and electric emissions.

Three ‘Most Important’ Greenhouse Gases Reached Record Highs

April 9, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, greenhouse gases, Methane, NOAA

Levels of the three “most important” greenhouse gases — methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — in the atmosphere reached record highs again in 2023, according to research conducted by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML). Air samples taken by GML indicated that levels of the heat-trapping gases did not rise as fast as the record leaps of recent years, but were still in accordance with sharp increases recorded in the past decade, a press release from NOAA said.

Wealthiest 10% Responsible For 40% Of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions

August 19, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Carbon emissions, climate crisis, greenhouse gases, Wealth Divide

According to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) study, Americans whose income is in the top 10 percent are responsible for 40 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country. It’s the first study to connect income with the emissions used to generate it. The researchers focused on earnings derived from financial investments and recommended taxes be adopted that hone in on investment incomes’ carbon intensity, a press release from UMass Amherst said. “Current policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation funding are insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

Lost Decade: How Shell Downplayed Early Warnings Over Climate Change

April 3, 2023 Matthew Green, DeSmog. Educate! Censorship, climate crisis, greenhouse gases, shell

Narrated in the upper-crust accent favoured by British documentary-makers of the era, Shell’s 1981 film Time for Energy assesses the scope for solar, wind, nuclear, and other sources of power to end the world’s dependence on finite reserves of oil. By the closing credits, the viewer is left in little doubt that there is only one fuel plentiful and versatile enough to carry the world “safely” into the 21st century: coal. The 30-minute film makes no mention of the coal assets the Anglo-Dutch oil major had acquired in an effort to diversify in the wake of the 1973 oil shock. Nor does it refer to a topic that was of unequivocal scientific concern at the time: The “greenhouse effect,” or what is now known as climate change.

Negotiators Influenced Final Text Of IPCC ‘Summary For Policymakers’

March 28, 2023 Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch. Educate! climate crisis, Fossil Fuels, greenhouse gases, IPCC

When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the “Summary for Policymakers” of the Synthesis of its Sixth Assessment Report on Monday, the text was not purely the work of scientists. Instead, delegates from 195 nations spent a week reviewing the document line-by-line and arguing over edits before finally approving it Sunday night. The ins and outs of the process were revealed this week by the International Institute for Sustainable Development Earth Negotiations Bulletin, the only media outlet allowed to observe the proceedings. The account demonstrates how major emitters and fossil fuel producers including the U.S., China and Saudi Arabia succeeded in weakening the message of the highly influential document.

Nitrogen Fertilizers Are Major Greenhouse Gas Emitters

February 12, 2023 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases

When we think of greenhouse gas emissions, we typically think of coal-burning power plants, vehicle exhaust or maybe forests being cleared to make way for methane-belching cows. However, there is another important agricultural source of climate pollution: nitrogen-based fertilizers. A new study from University of Cambridge-based researchers has calculated these fertilizers’ total contribution to the climate crisis for the first time, but also revealed how that contribution could be reduced to around a fifth of current levels by 2050. “Our work gives us a good idea of what’s technically possible, what’s big, and where interventions would be meaningful — it’s important that we aim interventions at what matters the most, in order to make fast and meaningful progress in reducing emissions,” study co-author Dr. André Cabrera Serrenho from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering said in a press release.

Wealthiest 10% Responsible For Nearly 50% Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

October 3, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Educate! Carbon emissions, climate crisis, greenhouse gases, wealth inequality

A new study has highlighted the inequality underriding the climate crisis. The paper, published in Nature Sustainability Thursday, looked at the difference in per-capita emissions across the global economic spectrum between 1990 and 2019. During this time, the top one percent of emitters were responsible for nearly a quarter of all emissions contributing to the climate crisis and the top 10 percent are now responsible for nearly half of the total. “In my benchmark estimates, I find that the bottom 50% of the world population emitted 12% of global emissions in 2019, whereas the top 10% emitted 48% of the total,” the study’s sole author Lucas Chancel of the Paris School of Economics’ World Inequality Lab wrote. “Since 1990, the bottom 50% of the world population has been responsible for only 16% of all emissions, whereas the top 1% has been responsible for 23% of the total.”

Study: To Counter Global Warming, Focus Far More On Methane

February 10, 2022 Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, greenhouse gases, Methane

The Environmental Protection Agency is drastically undervaluing the potency of methane as a greenhouse gas when the agency compares methane’s climate impact to that of carbon dioxide, a new study concludes. The EPA’s climate accounting for methane is “arbitrary and unjustified” and three times too low to meet the goals set in the Paris climate agreement, the research report, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found. The report proposes a new method of accounting that places greater emphasis on the potential for cuts in methane and other short-lived greenhouse gasses to help limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. “If you want to keep the world from passing the 1.5 degrees C threshold, you’ll want to pay more attention to methane than we have so far,” said Rob Jackson, an earth system science professor at Stanford University and a co-author of the study.

Are We Really Past The Point Of No Return On Climate?

November 17, 2020 Olivia Rosane, Ecowatch. Educate! Carbon emissions, climate crisis, greenhouse gases, Sea level rise

A controversial new climate study has found that, even if greenhouse gas emissions were halted tomorrow, it might not be enough to stop temperatures from continuing to rise. The study, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, was conducted by two researchers at the BI Norwegian Business School. They used the ESCIMO climate model to determine that, even if emissions ceased tomorrow, the permafrost would continue to thaw for hundreds of years. "According to our models, humanity is beyond the point-of-no-return when it comes to halting the melting of permafrost using greenhouse gas cuts as the single tool," lead author and professor emeritus of climate strategy Jorgen Randers told AFP.

The World Is On Lockdown – Where Are The Carbon Emissions Coming From?

April 29, 2020 Shannon Osaka, Grist.org. Educate! climate crisis, Global Recession, greenhouse gases, Pandemic

Pedestrians have taken over city streets, people have almost entirely stopped flying, skies are blue (even in Los Angeles!) for the first time in decades, and global CO2 emissions are on-track to drop by … about 5.5 percent. Wait, what? Even with the global economy at a near-standstill, the best analysis suggests that the world is still on track to release 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in a typical year, continuing to heat up the planet and driving climate change even as we’re stuck at home. A 5.5-percent drop in carbon dioxide emissions would still be the largest yearly change on record, beating out the financial crisis of 2008 and World War II. But it’s worth wondering: Where do all of those emissions come from? And if stopping most travel and transport isn’t enough to slow down climate change, what will be?

Climate Models Got It Right On Global Warming

December 16, 2019 By Chelsea Harvey, Scientificamerican.com Educate! Climate Change, Climate Science, Global Warming, greenhouse gases

There’s a favorite argument among doubters of mainstream climate science: Climate models overestimate the rate at which the Earth is warming. That claim surfaces time and again and is frequently based on single examples of uncertainty or cherry-picked data. Various studies have gone back and closely examined individual climate models in recent years and have generally found that they’re working pretty well. A study released yesterday has taken the exercise to the next level. The research takes a comprehensive look at all the global climate models published from the 1970s to 2007...

Under Cap & Trade California’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Increase

November 18, 2019 By Lisa Song, Propublica.org Educate! California, Climate Change, emissions, greenhouse gases, Oil, pollution

Gov. Jerry Brown took the podium at a July 2017 press conference to lingering applause after a steady stream of politicians praised him for helping to extend California’s signature climate policy for another decade. Brown, flanked by the U.S. and California flags, with a backdrop of the gleaming San Francisco Bay, credited the hard work of the VIPs seated in the crowd. “It’s people in industry, and they’re here!” he said. “Shall we mention them? People representing oil, agriculture, business, Chamber of Commerce, food processing. … Plus, we have environmentalists. ...”

Solutionary Rail Means Deep Cuts To Greenhouse Gases

October 4, 2019 Solutionary Rail, The Backbone Campaign. Create! Climate Change, greenhouse gases, New Economy

Electrify the trains: Electric cars and trucks will require resource-intensive battery manufacture and disposal. Electrifying the railroad, on the other hand, can take advantage of the fixed infrastructure of rail transport; like some bus lines in cities today, electric locomotives could receive electrical power by catenary wire accessed by a pantograph or an electrified third rail. An additional advantage of electric locomotives results from equipping them for regenerative braking – different from today’s diesel-powered trains equipped for dynamic braking, where energy is lost as heat.

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